SUNDAY SERMON
GOD'S PURPOSE: UNITY IN CHRIST
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 25, Year B
October 29, 2003
The Gospel: Mark
10.46-52
"BLIND" BARTIMAEUS, DISCIPLE
Bartimaeus could barely remember his childhood. He wasn't all that old when he'd lost his sight. Since then his life had taken on a predictable pattern. He didn't deviate from his routine. There was comfort in a routine-especially if you were blind. Routine at home; routine in your day. A place for everything and everything in its place.
Get up; get dressed; eat a little something; put on the cloak; walk down the dirt path to the big road, the Jerusalem road. Just fifteen miles up, up, up that mountainous road and you'd be in Jerusalem. He vaguely remembered what it looked like, the colors, the Golden City. When he was about seven, maybe eight, his family took him up for Passover. But now he had no family. He was quite alone, living by himself, barely making it, begging every day by the Jerusalem road.
It wasn't easy but still Bartimaeus didn't have a chip on his shoulder. Beggars, especially blind ones, certainly commanded no respect in Jericho, or any town. They were outsiders, living on the margins. But Bartimaeus knew his name; he knew it meant something-it meant son of honor. He held on to that. He tried to stay positive.
This time of year his hometown of Jericho was crammed with travelers. Everybody, it seemed, was headed up to Jerusalem for Passover. It was like an interstate; everyone from the north was headed south and they all had to go through Jericho. So beggars looked forward to Passover like shopping malls look forward to Christmas.
Bartimaeus had heard rumors about a new rabbi, a Nazarene named Jesus. There was even talk of his being the Messiah. Supposedly he was in Jericho. This particular morning Bartimaeus got to his spot by the roadside a little early. He took off his cloak and methodically laid it out in front of where he would sit down. He arranged it just so, cupping the edges up. Attention to detail could mean the difference between a coin being tossed toward the cloak but rolling out and a coin landing and staying in the cloak. Every penny matters to a blind beggar. The cloak was his livelihood. Soon coins began landing. His hearing was so good that he could usually guess the size of the coin when it landed.
The crowd was growing. The buzz in the crowd was growing. Something or someone was coming. Noise hit a fever pitch. Bartimaeus instinctively knew it must be the rabbi. He began to yell out,
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
People tried to hush him up but Bartimaeus has heard of Jesus and he's not about to shut up. He knows this is his one chance; his one hope and he's not going to miss it. In a minute the rabbi will disappear around the bend and hope, with him.
Son of David, MERCY! Have mercy on me!
A great hush fell over the crowd. All movement stopped. Bartimaeus hadn't heard the rabbi say anything in all the din, but apparently he had. Several people near his cloak passed the word along to him-Get up; he's calling you to come. It's your lucky day. [The Message, v. 49].
With reckless abandon Bartimaeus jumped up, tossing aside his cloak, sending coins every which-way. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, allowing the blind man a straight shot through to the rabbi. Then he was there; he sensed the open space. He was standing in front of Jesus. Not seeing Jesus yet, but coming because he'd been called.
Jesus with great respect for this nobody asks him a simple question: what do you want me to do for you? Bartimaeus, with great reverence answers, Rabbouni, [my teacher], I want to see.
And so it happens; he receives his sight. Jesus says, your faith has saved and healed you. Bartimaeus joins the disciples, following Jesus up to Jerusalem, following Jesus on the way-
the way of palm branches and Passover;
the way of the cross, only a week down the road.
+ + +
Bartimaeus is the last encounter Jesus has before the triumphal entry and the events we know as Holy Week. Bartimaeus is a beacon of hope for all who sit outside the church because he, too, is an outsider. He is not one of the twelve disciples. He does not seem a likely candidate to be called by Jesus. He's a nobody, a blind beggar. Yet Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell this story.
Mark, in particular, uses Bartimaeus to emphasize that this outsider gets the message in a way the disciples don't. Just a few verses earlier, in last Sunday's gospel reading we hear about James and John being asked the exact same question by Jesus, What do you want me to do for you? Their answer [sitting on Jesus' right and left] shows they were still out for themselves, looking out for number one. They are clueless and blind. In contrast, the blind Bartimaeus knows, perceives what his deepest desire is and Jesus gives it to him.
Mark reports breathlessly in his customary style: Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way. The Bartimaeus story is much more than a healing story, though it is surely that, too. It's a call story and a salvation story. It's an invitation to come to Jesus and so to see; to see Jesus and so to follow.
For Mark's readers this is the goal of the whole gospel: to follow Jesus on the way of discipleship. For us as well as for his first readers, Mark shines the spotlight on an outsider, blind Bartimaeus, to help us see what following Jesus and discipleship look like.
I want to close with a prayer which every St. Mary's School girl knows by heart and is sung every morning in chapel. It could well be the prayer of Bartimaeus.
Dear Lord of thee, three things I pray:
to see thee more clearly,
to love thee more dearly,
to worship thee more nearly
day by day.